The need for more alternative roads from north to the south of Nigeria

The need for more alternative roads from north to the south of Nigeria By Okechukwu Jombo It is no longer news that the recent closure of the Abuja-Lokoja bypass has exposed the need for an alternative route to the north from the south or vis versa in the event of eventualities such as the current flooding has bestowed on the nation. It has also taught the country the lesson that it needs further routes connecting the north and south of the country in the event of war It has also brought to the fore the urgent need to embark on reconstructions of already existing routes such as the Lokoja-Abuja road,Makurdi-Enugu,Mokwa-Jebba-Illorin road so as to make them standard and not what they are now. Even at that we have been told the journey from Abuja to Enugu can be decreased by three hours if a bridge is constructed from Bagana in kogi to Guto in Nasarawa state.The contract for the construction of the bridge was said to have been awarded since 2009 We plead that the federal government should complete the abandoned Abuja-Keffi-Guto-Bagana-Anyigba-Ajaokuta Road would have been the best alternative instead of the much longer and much more expensive way of going through Makurdi in Benue State in order to get into the FCT. The potentials of this bridge were just about to be unleashed on not only the communities of Bagana and Guto, but also on the country at large, when it was savagely cut short, and to add some bit of bad luck, another report filtered in that a fresh bridge of the same magnitude was about to be constructed not too far away. We belief the impropriety of the construction of the Loko-Oweto Bridge at the expense of an ongoing Bagana-Guto is evident on all fronts. First, the cost of the bridge is a staggering N36 billion, as against N24.3billion for the Bagana-Guto bridge, of which more than N10 billion has been sunk, excluding professional expertise. Again, the span of the Loko-Oweto Bridge has been found to be many times more than that of Bagana-Guto. Besides, the location of the Loko-Oweto bridge, that is on the Benue state side of the River Benue, not only constitutes a great inconvenience to commuters, but utterly defeats the ideals of the proponents of an easier access to the Southern part of the country, in terms of precious time wasted. The Bagana-Guto bridge is the only link that would aptly pass as the much-desired “Handshake across the Niger”, in terms of convenience and cost, and the economic potentials inherent in the emergence of that bridge is one that the nation as a whole cannot afford to miss. We expressed regret that construction work at the project site had been abandoned since last three years. We therefore call on Federal Government to as a matter of urgency complete any of these alternative rotes while at the same time completing the work on the already existing ones.The Abuja- Lokoja route has been under construction for a long time and needs to be finished We discovered that work on these projects were abandoned for lack of funding and plead that Government should fund them so that they will be completed by the companies already handling the jobs at least before Christmas in other to alleviate the suffering of the people that will be travelling for the yuletide. The alternative routes such as Zungeru-Minna-Lambata-Suleja-Abuja or Jebba-Mokwa-Kutigi-Bida-Lapai-Lambata-Suleja-Abuja roads are in deplorable states and can not serve the purpose. Even Motorists driving from Lagos that are to divert to Okene-Ajaokuta-Ayangba-Ankpa-Makurdi Lafia-Akwanga-Abuja route are not finding it easy for the same reason. The story is the same for those from the South East who are using Otukpa-Makurdi route and those driving from Abuja to Lokoja using Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi-Ankpa-Okene route all are crying and therefore need help urgently We urge Government to repair these roads quickly while providing better alternatives